Ability (1985) 11 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Communications Database Windows

Originally released in 1984 by the Canadian company Xanaro that went bankrupt, and then by Migent, Ability is an integrated office suite for DOS that includes word processor, spreadsheet, database, telecommunications, business graphing, presentation graphics capabilities, and built in file management. It features good integration between the different components, with the ability to import, share, and dynamically update data between them. It was advertised as a very easy to use and a quick to learn system.

• 2000
• 2002

ArcView GIS (1996) 20 Graphics Other Database Windows

ArcView, from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. is a geographical information system program for Win9x/NT.

• 3.3

Citrix MetaFrame (1998) 3 Server Windows

Citrix MetaFrame is an add-on for Windows Terminal Server that provides Citrix ICA connectivity and additional management tools. Unlike WinFrame, this is not an entire OS.

• 1.0
• 4.0

FileMaker (1984) 25 Database Windows MacOS

FileMaker is a very easy to use graphical flat-file database management tool from Claris that allows for visual form and report creation. Originally for DOS, there were Macintosh versions and later it was ported to Windows.

• Pro 5.x

IBM Small Business Suite (2000) 2 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Graphics Server Database Windows Linux

IBM Small Business Suite for Linux V1.6 is a Development Platform with a Set of Personal Productivity Tools. It was intended to simplify businesses transitioning to "e-business" by providing a foundation on which users could “webify” their businesses. It includes IBM and Lotus middleware products for Linux and Productivity tools for Windows.

• 1.x

Intellisync (2002) 1 Communications Windows

Pumatech Intellisync is corporate software designed to facilitate access to enterprise e-mail services with mobile devices.

• 5.x

LapLink (1987) 35 Communications Windows

LapLink, from Traveling Software Inc., enables users to easily and quickly move files between two DOS computers using only a serial null-modem cable or a special parallel port connector. No other hardware is needed. Laplink was extremely popular.during the late 80s and early 90s. It was infinitely easier to set up any two arbitrary PCs (often portables or laptops) with LapLink than other methods, such as DOS based networking. MS-DOS 6 bundled a similar set of file transfer tools called INTERLNK and INTERSVR.

• 2000
• Gold (9.0)

Lotus 1-2-3 (1983) 137 Spreadsheet Windows

Lotus 1-2-3 was an early spreadsheet application available for MS-DOS. It became extremely popular in the late 1980s, displacing the former leader VisiCalc. Lotus had difficulties adapting 1-2-3 to the Windows environment, and was overtaken by Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet functionality was also included in Lotus Symphony. Later versions were included in Lotus SmartSuite.

• 9.0 (Win)
• 9.1 (Win)
• 9.5 (Win)

Lotus Mail (1998) 1 Communications Windows

Lotus Mail was an interim product targeted at users of the older Lotus cc:Mail product, with the intent being that they would eventually switch to Lotus Notes/Domino. Lotus Mail features a user interface similar to cc:Mail, LDAP support, and powerful filtering options. Lotus Mail lacked support for HTML formatted e-mail (good!).

• 4.x

Lotus Notes (1993) 5 Communications PIM Windows MacOS

Lotus Notes is a powerful e-mail and collaboration tool. It was heavily used by large corporations. It was sometimes criticized for its complexity and bloat. Notes is a client server tool, and uses the Lotus Domino server (originally just called Lotus Notes server). Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino competed against Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange.

• 5.x

Lotus SmartSuite (1992) 72 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations PIM Database Windows OS2

IBM/Lotus SmartSuite is an office suite from Lotus software for Windows and OS/2. SmartSuite includes SmartCenter, 1-2-3, Word Pro, Freelance Graphics, Approach, Organizer, and ScreenCam.

• 9.0
• 9.1
• For OS2 Warp 4
• 9.5
• 9.6
• 9.7
• 9.8

Microsoft Exchange (1996) 6 Chat PIM Server Windows

Exchange is a proprietary e-mail and groupware server software from Microsoft for Windows Server. The first version publicly sold was Exchange Server 4.0. The number 4.0 was used as it was a replacement for Microsoft Mail 3.x. At release, unlike other desktop/lan e-mail solutions it featured client/server communications rather than using file sharing, used a powerful messaging protocol, and stored all message and address book information in a database. It eventually evolved to include scheduling and many other functions. The Exchange Client (later Microsoft Outlook) supported rich text formatting, and the ability to create such things as e-mail forms.

• 2000

Microsoft Office (1991) 424 Word Processor Spreadsheet Presentations Publishing PIM Database Windows

Microsoft Office is a bundle of Microsoft's productivity application. This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and later Mail, Office Manager, and Outlook. The "1.x" versions of Microsoft Office were simply a marketing bundle of the standalone products sold together with no other packaging changes. Even though these were distinct applications, rather than one single monolithic program, they shared a similar user interface, integrated well together and shared the ability to embed documents from one application in the documents of another.

• 2000
• XP (2002 Beta)

Microsoft Outlook (1997) 7 Communications PIM Windows

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is an enterprise grade e-mail client. It is primarily intended for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. It was available as both a stand-alone product and as part of Microsoft Office.

• 98

Microsoft Works (1986) 217 Word Processor Spreadsheet Communications Database Windows

Microsoft Works was an all-in-one scaled-down Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Database geared towards the home user. It was released in variants for early DOS, Windows, and Macintosh. Microsoft Works competed against Lotus Jazz, FrameWork, AlphaWorks/LotusWorks, PFS First Choice, and many others.

• 5.x
• 6.0

NetManage Chameleon (1993) 6 Communications Windows

NetManage Chameleon is a small and efficient TCP/IP networking stack and utility suite for Microsoft Windows. It includes an FTP client, Telnet client, E-mail client, and an NFS system for interoperation with Unix networks. Other GUI utilities include Bind, Finger, Ping, TFTP, FTP Server a TN3270 terminal emulator, Whois, and SNMP. Earlier versions ran on Windows 3.0 and 3.1.

• 8.0

Oracle Discoverer (1998) 3 Server Windows

Oracle Discoverer is an ad-hock reporting tool used with Oracle databases. It can view and edit data and produce reports and graphs.

• 3.x
• 4.x

Oracle Forms and Reports (1997) 19 Database Windows

Oracle Forms and Reports is a GUI application builder. It is similar to Visual Basic, but uses the PL/SQL language and integrates heavily with Oracle Server databases.

• 6i

Oracle Server (1991) 7 Server Database Windows

Oracle Server is an enterprise grade relational database used in many corporations. It was mainly targeted at high end server operating systems, such as IBM AIX, Sun Solaris, HP UX, Digital VMS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows NT. Oracle makes current versions of their software avaialble for download, but older versions usually disappear.

• 8

PATHWORKS (1994) 4 Web Browser Communications Windows

PATHWORKS is a network client suite that enables PCs to communicate with VMS and Ultrix systems from Digital Equipment Corporation.

• 32 V7.x

pcANYWHERE (1990) 10 Communications DOS Windows

pcAnywhere is a tool that enables one to remotely control another computer, or to be remotely controlled.

• 8.0 (Win)

Presentation Server (2005) 1 Server Windows

Presentation Server, from Citrix, is an application virtualization product that allows users to connect to applications on Windows Server remotely.

• 4.0

Remedy Action Request System (2001) 1 Server Database Windows

Remedy Action Request System is a powerful and flexible high-end client/server based helpdesk management program. It featured an easy to use design that was based around actual helpdesk needs. It was used in many large businesses

• 4.5

Thunderbird (2005) 5 Communications Windows Linux Mac OS X

Thunderbird is an e-mail client based on the integrated Netscape/Mozilla e-mail client. With the release Firefox, it was spun off in to a separate standalone product. It includes the same HTML rendering engine used in Firefox to render HTML formatted messages.

• 1.x

WinFax Pro (1992) 15 Communications Windows

Delrina WinFax Pro is fax program for Microsoft Windows. It was once ubiquitous, often bundled with modems or OEM PC computers. It was sometimes accompanied by Delrina DosFax. It competed again Softnet FaxWorks and BitWare.

• 10.0